What Is An Antioxidant? The Benefits Of Using Antioxidants In Skin Care

Antioxidants are an MVP in skin care. But does one really understand why? It's one in all a category of ingredients we just know we must always be slathering on but don't really understand what they're doing once they touch our delicate skin. But once you understand why they're so important for skin health, you'll never want to skip an antioxidant serum or cream again.

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What is an antioxidant?

An antioxidant could be a molecule that neutralizes free radicals within the body. "Free radicals are harmful unstable molecules that may damage your cells or DNA," says board-certified dermatologist Zenovia Gabriel, M.D., FAAD. Free radicals are called "unstable" because they're missing an electron. this is often an issue because atoms don't love to possess uneven electrons, and once they are unbalanced they wreak havoc. a technique they wreak havoc is that they take electrons from healthy cells. Those healthy cells are then became, you guessed it, free radicals. The cycle continues.

The cycle, of course, needs to start somewhere: Our body naturally creates free radicals as a byproduct of cell metabolism but also by coming into contact with external aggressors like UV exposure, blue light, smoking, pollution, inflammation, and so on. When this happens, your body is put through what's called oxidative stress. Here's a radical explainer on oxidative stress—read up, it's worth understanding—but an abbreviated definition is it's an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants within the body.

Cool scary-sounding science jargon, right? But what does that really mean? a full lot, it turns out: "Free radicals result in changes within the cell that are recognized as signs of aging: decreased collagen and elastin, increased pore size, increased textural changes and changes in pigmentation," says Morgan Rabach, M.D., board-certified dermatologist and co-founder of LM Medical NYC.

So after you apply antioxidants (or ingest, but that's a completely different topic, which you'll find out about here), they stabilize free radicals by donating an electron. Or they could make free radicals harmless by breaking them down. And what's even more impressive is that antioxidants don't develop into free radicals themselves after freely giving an electron.

What are the benefits?

  • Support collagen and elastin. When your body is anesthetize oxidative stress, your production of collagen and elastin slows down—not to say these precious structural skin cells actually start to interrupt down.
  • Help minimize pore size. you can not shrink pores; however, your pores do enlarge as you age. This happens because the collagen in your skin breaks down and therefore the pore lining starts to sag. Then you finish up with skin that feels like orange rind skin.
  • Brighten tone. This happens via two pathways. the primary is that it mitigates UV damage, the first explanation for discoloration. The second is that some antioxidants can actually work as pigment inhibitors, meaning they stop dark spots from forming altogether.
  • Decrease inflammation. Inflammation is that the results of free radicals and oxidative stress. Inflammation could be a systemic issue, of course, but on the skin it can show up as a spread of symptoms, including acne, redness, sensitivity, rashes, or so on. Since antioxidants neutralize free radicals, it tempers inflammation.
  • Delay photo-aging. Since UV damage and things like blue light trigger free radicals, you'll halt this process and minimize damage by using antioxidants.

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